We’re all familiar with the big names of cinema exhibition. But there are plenty of lesser-known cinema companies around the world with colourful stories. So we enlisted the help of CTC Governor and all-round industry legend, Sandie Caffelle, to take you around the world in our new series…
A
SPOTLIGHT
ON...
Filmhouse Cinemas, Nigeria Filmhouse Landmark
CT: When did Filmhouse open its first-ever site and what
ket: multiple taxations, power issues, high costs of clearing
obstacles did you have to overcome that were specific to
imported equipment and so on. But looking at how far we
Nigeria as a territory?
have come - and what we now have the audacity to dare
Filmhouse began operations in December of 2012 with its
and hope for - we couldn’t be more grateful for the loyalty
first cinema in Lagos, a three-screen cinema located on Ad-
and resilience of our team and our esteemed guests who
eniran Ogunsanya, Surulere. It was one of the pioneering
choose to trust in our ability to build a big brand and de-
cinemas in the country at that time, and the second in the
liver a great service. We still face some of these challenges
mainland area of the city. Being new players in the territory,
today, for example, the national grid collapsed recently and
we had several challenges, ranging from funding to accessi-
the price of diesel skyrocketed. So we have had to regu-
bility of Hollywood content. We were just starting and some
late operational hours in some of our buildings to balance
regional distributors wanted minimum guarantees at prices
the excessive pressure on our overhead costs, but we’re
that were a bit burdensome to manage. We had to set the
pleased to say that the strategy has proven to be effective.
ball rolling with “Nollywood” films (Nigerian film industry Filmhouse’s IMAX Cinema, Lekki, Lagos
content) from independents and at one point, we were even
CT: How many operational sites do you have? Are they all
described as a “Nollywood cinema” by observers.
in Nigeria?
Other challenges were normal for start-ups in our mar-
We currently have 11 operational sites, having lost one to vandalism during the #EndSars protest, but yes, they are all situated in Nigeria. However, there are ongoing conversations about opening cinemas in other west African markets, and as soon as they are confirmed, we will be making announcements. In the meantime, we have another IMAX cinema opening before the end of the year in Lagos. CT: During the growth of the group what did you learn? Did anything surprise you? We would not say that anything, in particular, came as a surprise - we expected to learn as we progressed. The market was new and largely uncharted, so we expected that being one of the pioneers would come with a few uncertainties about how a new product offering in the leisure and entertainment sector would be received. However, our approach was to implement flexible strategies that could accom-
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